What makes a neo-Nazi become a convinced anti-fascist or a radical left-winger become a devout Salafist? How do they manage to fit into their new environment and gain acceptance as a former enemy? The people featured in this book made highly puzzling journeys, first venturing into extremist milieus and then deciding to switch to the opposite side. By using their extraordinary life-stories and their own narratives, this book provides the first in-depth analysis of how and why people move between seemingly opposing extremist environments that can sometimes overlap and influence each other. It aims to understand how these extremists manage to convince their new group that they can be trusted, which also allows us to dive deep into the psychology of extremism and terrorism. This fascinating work will be of immense value to those studying radicalization and counter-radicalization in terrorism studies, social psychology and political science.
ISBN-13: 9781108825085
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: 10-26-2023
Pages: 375
Product Dimensions: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.78d
Daniel Koehler is the Founding Director of the German Institute of Radicalization and De-Radicalization Studies (GIRDS) and a leading expert on terrorism, violent extremism, radicalization, and deradicalization. He is member of the Editorial Board of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague and a Research Fellow at the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab of the American University in Washington, DC.
Table of Contents
Foreword; Preface; 1. Betraying the cause? Side-switching and violent extremism; 2. Nation, race and anti-semitism: switching to far-right extremism; 3. Joining the far-left; 4. Fighting on the path of Allah: joining Islamic extremism from the far-right and far-left; 5. Who are extremist side-switchers and what drives them? Towards a theory of motivations and defector lifecycles; 6, Breaking the cycle: learning how to improve counter-radicalization, counterterrorism and deradicalization programs; 7. Conclusions.
